﻿2008: The Year The Phillies Were Going to Win the World Series—An Oral History

Collective memory is a notoriously hazy entity, deeply subject to the events that follow. Richard Nixon won 49 of 50 states in the 1972 election. But go out and ask people how their community felt about the president. Chances are you won’t find too many stalwarts for Tricky Dick.

In the case of the 2008 championship Philadelphia Phillies, a remarkably similar legend emerges. Three baseball fans—Dick Polman, a Penn professor and political blogger and columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Dave Zimmerman, a process server from Northeast Philadelphia, and Ken Gritter, a bartender at Smokey Joe’s Tavern—were interviewed for this piece. They remember a historically awful team, revived by a new stadium and manager, that came together perfectly in 2008. They remember a feeling of confidence in a talented group of players. And they remember that they really thought the Phillies could win it all.

For the most part, their memory of concrete details was accurate. Footnotes have been added to correct verifiably untrue facts. As for the intangible emotions that accompanied the season, nobody knows. And, really, nobody cares. Victory is what Philadelphia remembers.

History:

P: Before the 2008 Phillies, no sports team had won since the ‘76ers in 1983. It had been a quarter of a century since any team had won a championship.

G: Philadelphia Phillies…hold the record for the most losses of any professional franchises. They’ve had over ten thousand losses. For many years and years and years, they were horrible.

Z: They’re the Phillies. They let us down a lot.

P: They were in the World Series in 1993. And that was a fantastic team.

G: Then they hit—yeah, they were down for a little bit in the late ‘90s.

Z: They had a few bad seasons. And then [manager] Charlie Manuel got here.

P: I was a baseball writer for one season. A very long time ago during their long, long period of mediocrity…specifically 1991. And they played in that awful stadium—The Vet. With very bad Astroturf.

Z: The Vet was pretty much a shithole.

P: There were mice in the press box. Just a very unwholesome place to be.

Z: But once they got Citizens Bank Park it all started to come together again.

G: The Park drew people.

Z: It seems to me like every seat in that place is great. You can be sitting down low or up high. Everything seems to be close to the field.

P: It was such a fabulous place to watch a ballgame.

Z: People were really starting to enjoy baseball again in the city.

P: That helped the Phillies get a revenue stream that they really needed. They never had enough money to attract a lot of free agents who were good.

G: As they got better and better…Now they draw three million people a year, every year. That gave them a whole lot more economic flexibility.

Z: And they just started to turn things around.

P: They got some good management finally after a long period in which they were not getting it. So you put the two together, and they started winning division championships. They won their division championships in 2007. They were blown out in the first round. I think by the Colorado Rockies…you could see they were putting together a nucleus. Chase Utley was injury free. We had Howard at first base who was just moving into his prime. Jimmy Rollins was hitting consistently and obviously fielding so well. We picked up Werth. They got him cheap. Utley was hitting 30 homers a season.

G: Chooch [Carlos Ruiz]...was a very consistent defensive catcher.

Z: And they were always together, hanging out together. It was just the chemistry the team had together...They brought the fans in with them. That was the thing about Citizens Bank Park. It was so enclosed that you could spend time with the players to go over and get some autographs. It was such an intimate thing. I think that’s what brought baseball back to the city of Philadelphia. It was the whole vibe of these guys. And how great they treated the fans.

P: And they started getting some quality pitching.

Z: We had the best closer in the game. Brad Lidge was ridiculous.

P: It was like lightning in a bottle. We just happened to catch Lidge right in the exact moment where everything was working together.[1]

G: [45-year old] Jamie Moyer was a free agent signing.[2]

P: I always felt confident watching [Moyer] out there. I knew that if he was having a bad day, it was because physically, he was having a bad day. It wasn’t anything upstairs…You need someone like that on the pitching staff. Cole Hamels was a young phenom that year.

Z: Cole Hammels was a stud.

P: A good pitching staff has a blend of the young and the older.

G: They started out well. I don’t remember precisely their record after forty games or at the All-Star break. I don’t remember exactly their record. They were consistent.

P: The Mets were really the favorite that year.

G: The Mets were used to beating up on the Phillies.

P: The Phillies and Mets had a big rivalry, as they still do. The big thing in Philly culturally is that we always feel we’re in the shadow of New York. So the way that carries over to baseball is really rooting hard against the Mets.

G: It’s a reflection of the New York-Philadelphia rivalry.

Z: [Carlos Beltran in the preseason] was talking about how the Phillies have no chance. He was with the Mets. That’s when Jimmy Rollins came out and said we’re going to be the team to beat. The Mets were always the top team.

P: This was during the period where Jimmy Rollins was very cocky about the Phillies doing well…I think people in Philadelphia liked his attitude. It was like a break from the past.

Season:

P: And [the Mets] started really well. And Philadelphia—they were playing well…[but] for a lot of the season, the Mets had the upper hand.[3]

Z: Anyone but the Mets.

P: I seem to remember they hit a bad patch [in June].

Z: They had a nine-game losing streak.[4]

P: It used to be the culture in Philadelphia with the Phillies…that all the years in the ‘90s, particularly with the exception of ’93, when the team went bad around June, or what was called the June Swoon, that people of Philadelphia, their immediate reaction would be, “Here we go again.” Or, “Oh boy. I knew this was going to happen.” You know. Fatalism. I seem to remember that people didn’t have that same sense of dismissal and dread.

Z: They played their asses off. And they were the team that would be down 6-1 going into the sixth or seventh inning, where back in the early days, you would leave the game. But knowing how confident these Phillies teams were, you’d stay and watch them, just because they would fight to the end.

P: [Midseason starting pitcher Joe] Blanton was a good pick up because the thing about him—and it’s a shame he’s gone now—Blanton was a reliable 5 2/3, 3 earned runs, 6 hits, too many pitches and then he’s gone, kind of starting pitcher. He would just get you into the sixth inning.

Z: I think Joe Blanton was the biggest mistake the Phillies ever made.

G: Blanton pitched well for them.

G: In September, I think the Mets went ahead briefly.

Z: It was a very scary time because we thought the boys weren’t going to get into it. The Mets were on a high…You thought the Phillies were going to let you down again.

P: Then [the Mets] started doing what they’ve been known for doing, which is fading down the stretch.

Z: Then, the Phillies ended up coming back and taking it.

P: It was just sort of a double pleasure…Apparently there was something in their makeup or chemistry that was working against them. At the same time, our makeup and chemistry was working for us. It’s hard for me to remember too many specifics about September besides that. Beyond checking the standings and seeing the slides and seeing the rise almost like two lines on a chart intersecting. One up. One down.

NLDS:

Z: I just felt very confident once they got to that point.

P: The first step is always the most nervous making. You realize you’ve got two hurdles to get to the World Series. Milwaukee—I don’t even remember who they had. Here’s what I remember from that series. I remember one thing from that series. Werth hit a titanic home run in Milwaukee. It must have gone over 420 feet. Helped win a game.

NLCS:

Z: I worried about the Dodgers a little bit because they had a lot of bats.

P: What was fabulous about that, what I remember more than anything else, what everybody remembers, they get to Dodger stadium. There was a guy off the bench for us. Matt Stairs. A big guy who looked like a hockey player. He hit this titanic homerun. It had to be about thirty rows deep. It was at a very key moment.

G: He was a journeyman pinch hitter. And he happened to get a big hit at the right time.

P: The guy cold hardly run. He couldn’t field…And so he would just—as he put it at the time—he swings hard at everything…It just took off. It was just one of those balls that as soon as it hits the bat, you know. It just had that lift.

Z: And then after that, he became a folk town hero. 40-something years old. Coming off the bench. And then he becomes a hero in Philadelphia.

Z: The Phillies just dominated that series.

World Series:

P: I never took Tampa Bay seriously as a baseball team. Maybe because they were from Tampa Bay and only got ten thousand people in the stands for a game. And I thought, “Why do they have a franchise?”

Z: Tampa Bay. There were no worries in my mind about that team. They had a young pitching staff that was a little bit scary. We had the rainout in that one game. But there was little doubt in my mind that the Phillies were going to win the World Series.

P: This is what you’re going to have to fill in from other people. All I remember from the World Series was the [fifth] game before it was called they were sliding around on mud. And it was like when are they going to call this? This is ridiculous.

And then coming back to finish the game. They ended up picking up in like the sixth inning. And what I remember was. If I’m not mistaken, the very first guy—it might have been Pat Burrell—hit a ball that we all thought was going out. It hit off the top of the farthest just to center field railing. He ended up on second or third. And that kind of set the tone. The game was tied at the time. And I thought, “Oh my God. This could really happen.”

They got the two outs. The batter was a big left handed pinch hitter who used to be on the Red Sox. And, finally, he strikes him out. I’m watching in my house with wife. The most non-baseball fan in the world. But she loves Philadelphia. She has a lot of civic pride. She likes it when Philadelphians are happy. So she came down to watch from the seventh inning on. She never does that. And she was completely caught up in it.

So we’re sitting there, and when the batter struck out and Lidge fell to his knees. And he like beseeches the heavens with his arms.

G: I was at Tip O’Leary’s. Havertown. Everybody was jumping up and down. Just like we were at the stadium….The whole region was going crazy.

Z: I was at a bar in Northeast called Real’s with about 20 of my friends….It was a just unbelievable experience. Beers throwing all over the place. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Bars all empty. There were girls lifting up their shirts. Climbing up poles.

P: We were going crazy like we were ten years old. We live in center city just a couple blocks from Broad Street. Within two minutes, it sounded like a riot outside. It was a seasonably warm night. And we open the windows. It was just like cars honking, people screaming. We took our dog over to walk with him over to Broad Street. We sort of joined this impromptu celebration. Half the people were drunk. Average age: twenty-two-ish. Everybody was blasted. It was great.

Z: When they won the World Series in 1980, I was 11. When they won it this time, it was the craziest. I was with my brothers and my friends. It was the greatest experience of my whole entire life. I’m still looking forward to this season. I think we’re going to do it again.

[1] Completely accurate. Brad Lidge, in fact, did not blow a single game that season. He recorded a 1.95 ERA and 41 saves, ten more than he would have in any season since.

[2] Jamie Moyer was actually acquired in a trade with Seattle.

[3] Until the end of the season, The Phillies were actually doing better than, or as well as, the Mets. After 40, 80, 120, and 162 games, the Mets were 21-19, 39-41, 64-56, and 89-73. The Phillies were 22-18, 43-37, 64-56, and 92-70.

[4] It was actually a six game losing streak, part of a 3-11 slump at the end of June.